Just seen this again, great movie, with Peck
at his brooding best.
Not convinced about Joan Collins though
thought she was woodmen and miscast in this western.
As Jay says, what a great ending, and what a surprise!
One to watch if you find time
Just seen this again, great movie, with Peck
at his brooding best.
Not convinced about Joan Collins though
thought she was woodmen and miscast in this western.
As Jay says, what a great ending, and what a surprise!
One to watch if you find time
The Bravados directed by Henry King
starred Gregory Peck and Joan Collins.
The CinemaScope film was based on a novel of the same name
written by Frank O'Rourke.
Also supported by Lee Van Cleef
User Review
Losing A Moral Compass
26 March 2007 | by bkoganbing (Buffalo, New York)
QuoteDisplay MoreJohn Wayne's Ethan Edwards, Jimmy Stewart's Howard Kemp, or any number of roles Kirk Douglas has played have nothing of the intensity of Gregory Peck's Jim Douglas in The Bravados.
Peck is perfect casting for the part because he's playing against type. If Atticus Finch's wife had been a homicide victim, I think this is how we would see him. Totally lose a moral compass and become a relentless stalker. It's what makes The Bravados work, because we identify Gregory Peck with an innate decency.
Peck's house was robbed and his wife raped and murdered by intruders. Peck has a line on them, they're four killers who've been caught and scheduled to hang for a bank robbery in a town several miles away where a bank teller has been killed.
But they escape with the help of the hangman, Joe DeReda soon to become a stooge. These are a quartet of the nastiest villains ever, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi, Lee Van Cleef, and Henry Silva all of whom have played villains with relish on the big screen. One of them, Boyd, in fact is a rapist, they take young Kathleen Gallant the daughter of the town's dry goods merchant along as a hostage.
Charles Bronson never executed bad guys with as much relish as Peck did. They are convicted murderers who've escaped, there's no law to answer to.
Peck may be doing some public service homicides, but there's a higher law he must answer to for the preservation of his own soul. In fact the ending brings quite a twist to the tale.
The Bravados is one of six films directed by long time 20th Century Fox director Henry King who is most known for doing nine films there with Tyrone Power. In fact the first couple that Peck did were probably properties that were meant for Power, but Darryl Zanuck switched them for his new up and coming leading man.
This one however is all Gregory Peck's film, I'm not sure Power could have done a better job. Peck gets some able support from the villainous quartet and from Joan Collins as an old flame he finds that has settled in the town the four have savaged.
Special mention should go to Andrew Duggan as the priest in the town where apparently everyone is Catholic. Duggan does a good job as the padre who gives just the right spiritual advice and counsel to a troubled soul.
Themes like rape were not exactly subject matter for westerns before the Fifties. The Bravadoes succeeds both as Saturday matinée shooting and as serious adult drama. It shouldn't be missed when broadcast.
THE BRAVADOS
DIRECTED BY HENRY KING
PRODUCED BY HERBERT B. SWOPE Jr,
ORIGINAL MUSIC BY LIONEL NEWMAN
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION
Photo with the courtesy of lasbugas
Plot Summary
Jim Douglas has been relentlessly pursuing the four outlaws
who murdered his wife,
but finds them in jail about to be hanged.
While he waits to witness their execution, they escape;
and the townspeople enlist Douglas' aid to recapture them.
Written by David Levene
Full Cast
Gregory Peck ... Jim Douglass
Joan Collins ... Josefa Velarde
Stephen Boyd ... Bill Zachary
Albert Salmi ... Ed Taylor
Henry Silva ... Lujan
Kathleen Gallant ... Emma Steimmetz
Barry Coe ... Tom
George Voskovec ... Gus Steimmetz
Herbert Rudley ... Sheriff Sanchez
Lee Van Cleef ... Alfonso Parral
Andrew Duggan ... Padre
Ken Scott ... Primo, Deputy Sheriff
Gene Evans ... John Butler
Ninos Cantores de Morelia Choral Group ... Themselves (as The Niños Cantores De Morelia Choral Group)
Robert Adler ... Tony Mirabel (uncredited)
Ada Carrasco ... Sra. Parral (uncredited)
Alicia del Lago ... Ángela Luján (uncredited)
Joe DeRita ... Mr. Simms (uncredited)
Jacqueline Evans ... Mrs. Barnes (uncredited)
Juan García ... Deputy Sheriff Guarding the Pass (uncredited)
María Gracia ... Helen - Little girl - Jim Douglass' daughter (uncredited)
Robert Griffin ... Banker Loomis (uncredited)
Jack Mather ... Quinn the Blacksmith (uncredited)
Jason Wingreen ... Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Writing Credits
Philip Yordan (screenplay)
Frank O'Rourke (novel)
Original Music
Lionel Newman
Hugo Friedhofer (uncredited)
Alfred Newman (uncredited)
Cinematography
Leon Shamroy (director of photography)
Goofs
Character error
The interior church scenes are of a magnificent, highly ornate,
and vast - probably Metropolitan - cathedral.
This is hardly in keeping with the small-town setting of the film.
External shots do not show such a massive architectural edifice.
When the wounded sheriff staggers into the church (c.35')
the bloodstain on his shirt does not match the knife wound inflicted earlier.
It is significantly lower.
Continuity
When the first gang member lies in ambush, he is seen crawling past a large green shrub
and behind broken blades of dry grass
After he is spotted by Jim Douglass and the camera cuts back to him,
the exact same shot is repeated as though it is happening further along in the story.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
When Gregory Peck lassoed Albert Salmi he roped one leg.
Yet when he hung him from a tree both legs were in the noose.
However when playing it in slow motion, you can see that when he ropes him
and he falls down and tries to reach the rope to get out of it,
both feet are in the noose as Peck starts to drag him,
and again when he stops to throw the rope over the limb
Salmi tries again to get it loose and both feet are still in the noose.
Trivia
Gregory Peck stated that the movie was written as an attack
on McCarthyism, which he strongly opposed.
While filming Gregory Peck decided to become a cowboy in real life,
so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California -
already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle.
Filming Locations
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
St Jose Perua mountains, Mexico